Day 552: Searching of Knapp's Castle

Boulder floating over a house on Painted Cave Road

Day #552 * Hike #632 * New Track #546

Sunday May 20, 2012
Searching for Knapp's Castle - Santa Barbara, CA

My Tripometer: 45 minutes * 1.5 Miles * +225 Feet

 Horses on Painted Cave Road

 The Map

So Day 552 continues.  We started at the Painted Cave and then drove up the road further.  My goal was to search for Knapp's Castle.  When we reached the stop sign at the top of the road, I figured this was it.  Although I had my map with me in the car, I didn't care to look at it.  So, we parked the car and cut through an opening in a fence to the left and began to hike.  It looked like a legit trail -- but after looking at the map, we were at the 2789 foot way point.  I didn't realize before because the map cuts off, but East Camino Cielo road goes left here.  Bottom line, I was just confused and I missed the trailhead for Knapp's Castle by 0.9 miles.  Instead, this is what we did...

 Cross the street to begin the hike

 Nice flowers - hot open and exposed to the sun!

 Well, we are somewhere?

What does the #2 stand for?

The trail keeps going up...

I told the kids the castle would be up here :(

 Views of Lake Cachuma...

 The landscape

 Big Pine Cones

Kids found a rock to climb

This was a neat little adventure.  Really no big deal...  At the beginning, there will be a fork in the trail.  We chose left and hiked it up to a picnic table and then a bit further where it the trail just ended.  We came back and then walked a quarter mile down the low trail.  I thought somehow this may have looped but it never worked out that way.  Good enough, the kids were tired but our day was not over yet...